I beat the wall out myself one night in a fit of anger. Mother had caned me for not being in the common room for a meeting she had called for us.
After she verbally abused me, she bent me over the table and laid so many whacks across my bare ass that I couldn’t sit for days.
I used that to make my own little escape hatch. I took the heaviest candelabra I could find from her collection of holy relics and slammed it against the wall over and over until it gave way.
She still hasn’t found my hole, or figured out what became of her piece of metal. I think she suspects, but she knows better than to accuse me at this point.
For the most part, she leaves me be since I rarely come out from beneath the convent. When I do, it’s to gather food and drinks from the weekly food drives she organizes.
No one needs these simple things like we do and yet she gives it all away like we mean nothing to her.
“Any reason we couldn’t have gone through the front door?” he asks me in a loud whisper after I’ve climbed in through the entrance.
“Men aren’t allowed here,” I reply before I hush him up again and walk further into the darkness. “Mother doesn’t like visitors, but I like you and wanted to thank you properly for helping me find my way back.”
Reade chuckles quietly but continues to follow me. My home may not be what he assumes it to be, but it’s mine and Mother can’t take it from me.
I drew myself away from the light a long time ago to ensure the only person I would ever hurt would be myself. When it comes to the pleasure of others, I crawl out of the back wall to gather my props, then come back and store them properly.
Except for one,I think as I shake my head.
“We’re almost there,” I promise him.
“Doesn’t look this big from the outside,” he remarks. I reach a hand back and swat at him when I hear footsteps echoing through the catacombs.
“Go away,” I snap into the darkness, my voice echoing against the walls.
“Maybe I should go, Pally,” he says gently, but I won’t let him.
I need him.
He’s mine.
I blindly reach down and grab one of his hands, push open a door on the left and pull him into the room.
We can get to my room from here, but I had hoped to be able to go straight there without interruption.
“Paloma Grace!”
I cringe as the door slams closed behind us.
“Stay here,” I tell Reade as I let his hand go and pull my hair back into a ponytail. I loop strands of my own hair around it to keep it in place. “Don’t leave me, okay? I promise it’ll be worth it.”
Reade looks absolutely startled and before he has a chance to respond, I push the door open again, and step out into the hallway.
Chapter Seven
“What?”I bark into the darkness.
“Where have you been?”
“I was lost,” I say, placing my hands on my hips.
“And now you’re okay?”
“Yes. A nice man found me, I’m fine.”
“What does he get for being nice to you?”